BATESON, William (1861–1926)

This is the much-expanded second edition of Mendel’s Principles of Heredity: a Defence, published in 1902. It was the first book on Mendelism in English. This 1909 edition contains reprints of Bateson’s translation into English of Mendel’s Versuch über Pflanzen-Hybriden (1865), pp 317-361, the most significant single achievement in the history of genetics, and also of Mendel’s second paper Ueber einige aus künstlicher Befruchtung gewonnenen Hieracium-Bastarde (1869). “Even in 1900, however, the ideas put forward by Mendel were sharply contested. Bateson was among his foremost champions. In 1902 he published Mendel’s Principles of Heredity: A Defence, and in his 1909 volume he included a translation of the original paper. Simultaneously with L. Cuénot in France he extended the principle to animals. He became virtually the founder of the modern study of heredity and variation for which he adopted the term 'genetics’. Further development of Mendelian principles has extended far beyond pure science to everyday life where 'results obtained in the flower-pot, the milk-bottle and the breeding pan' have been placed on an exact scientific basis.” (PMM) Bateson is frequently called the father of genetics for his fundamental work in heredity. He extended and enlarged upon Mendel’s basic laws of gene segregation and assortment, noting in particular the frequent 'linkage’ of certain traits and the action of one gene upon another. Bateson also investigated the hereditary nature of certain diseases such as hemophilia and color blindness. (Eimas)

Collation: Pp xvi, (2), 396. Three photographic portraits of Mendel (1862, 1866, 1880), one full-page and 5 double-page colour plates and numerous figures in the text.

Binding: Publisher’s dark-green cloth.

Provenance: Bookplate: J. Norman Greaver.

References: Garrison-Morton 241; Printing and the Mind of Man 356; Heirs of Hippocrates 2240; DSB, I, pp 505-506. Waller 10733 (1913 ed.)